For centuries a major administrative, shipping, and trading town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to European recognition of its favorable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War while the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between east and west, and became the undisputed financial hub of the Asia Pacific in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was reoriented to focus on socialist countries, and the city's global influence declined. In the 1990s, the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment to the city.

Shanghai (video game)

Gameplay

Shanghai is a computerized version of mahjong solitaire. After winning a game, the tiles reveal the three-dimensional blinking eye of a dragon behind the game screen. The Macintosh and Sega Master System version shows an animated dragon spitting fire.

Development

Shanghai was programmed by Brodie Lockard.

Reception

Shanghai was successful, selling more than 500,000 copies by 1991.Computer Gaming World in December 1986 published varying opinions. One stated, "I couldn't believe [Activision] had wasted their resources on putting it out", while another called it "probably the best game of the year".Compute! reviewed the game favorably, reporting that "our Shanghai mania is of such proportions that I am beginning to fear for our health". In 1988, Dragon gave the game 5 out of 5 stars, and also gave the Atari Lynx version 5 stars later in 1992.IGN gave the Atari Lynx game a 10/10 review score.

The role of crimps and the spread of the practice of shanghaiing resulted from a combination of laws, economic conditions, and the shortage of experienced sailors in England and on the American West Coast in the mid-19th century.

First, once a sailor signed on board a vessel for a voyage, it was illegal for him to leave the ship before the voyage's end. The penalty was imprisonment, the result of federal legislation enacted in 1790. This factor was weakened by the Maguire Act of 1895 and the White Act of 1898, before finally being eradicated by the Seamen's Act of 1915.

The Republic's first president, Sun Yat-sen, served only briefly. His party, then led by Song Jiaoren, won a parliamentary election held in December 1912. However the army led by President Yuan Shikai retained control of the national government in Beijing. After Yuan's death in 1916, local military leaders, or warlords, asserted autonomy.